6 ms·

Does anyone here on HN have experience running NetBSD as their desktop OS?

by somethingsimple 8y ago

rjsw 8y ago
I'm typing this on a desktop running NetBSD.
- emgee_1 8y ago
  Can you elaborate a bit? What kind of DE? Openbsd user here:-)
  - rjsw 8y ago
    What do you count as a DE ? Right now I'm running mwm, emacs, Firefox, NetBeans, a couple of PDF viewers and lots of xterms.
    - emgee_1 8y ago
      Well if you are using emacs, like I do, what else do you need? Ok maybe a browser outside of emacs and a pdf viewer:-) And a tmux session somewhere. Someone once said: I just need a bootloader for emacs :-)
    - fierarul 8y ago
      So, you also have a functioning OpenJDK 8 or so to run NetBeans? I assume this means an x86 machine, correct?
      - rjsw 8y ago
        Yes this is on NetBSD/amd64, with a native OpenJDK 8. OpenJDK 8 will build for arm as well but it doesn't have a JIT.
- na85 8y ago
  Which laptop? How's battery life? Does s3/s0 suspend and resume work?
  - rjsw 8y ago
    desktop != laptop.
    - na85 8y ago
      Whoops. Misread that.
bch 8y ago
It has been my primary for ~16 years, and I’ve been running -current (tip of development branch) for nearly 10 years. Base system (which includes tmux[0]), X11 (which is optional, but maintained by NetBSD), dwm[1], Tcl[2] cURL[3], fossil[4] and Firefox and I’m usually on my way... [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmux https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmux [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwm [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tcl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tcl [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CURL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CURL [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_(software)
- vasili111 8y ago
  Why have you chosen NetBSD?
  - bch 8y ago
    Perceived balance of Unix tradition, progressiveness and sane engineeering/community. The base build system (build.sh)[0] which is essentially Makefiles is absolutely beautiful to work with, ditto for pkgsrc[1]. They’re “progressive” enough to include dtrace[2], work on neat security[3], and kernel models[4][5], but have eschewed modern Linux-isms like ip(1), systemd. Of BSD v Linux, my heart is definitely with the more traditional BSD. Of BSDs, I feel Net is capable enough, simpler than Free, but more feature full than Open. The other interesting BSD would be DragonFly - really interesting, but I’m happy enough w Net that I’m not going to swap it out, and don’t need more (different) systems in my life right now. [0] https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-build.html https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-build.html [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pkgsrc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pkgsrc [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTrace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTrace [3] http://www.netbsd.org/support/security/ http://www.netbsd.org/support/security/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rump_kernel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rump_kernel [5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6562611 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6562611
    - bch 8y ago
      Additionally, it’s not windows, not MacOS, and not Linux. It’s difficult to escape those in day-to-day computing, so my daily driver (thinkpad laptop) is slightly different on purpose, the idea being that, to a degree, everything I do is necessarily very “conscious”. What I mean is that nothing works automatically because I’m part of a vast majority. Where I run into friction, I try to take note and keep this in mind with the rest of my relationship with the world, whether it’s developing software, or making assumptions about the way people use computers. I often cite Neil Young to describe my “ditch”[0] computing. [0] http://www.thrasherswheat.org/tnfy/ditch.htm http://www.thrasherswheat.org/tnfy/ditch.htm
ephor 8y ago
Not here, but I use NetBSD constantly as a timesharing system via SDF.org.
nbsd4life 8y ago
I do, I'm using dwm, firefox and urxvt. I've got a lot of netbsd running machines. The one I use now is a Haswell CPU with nvidia graphics, and everything works well on it (even nvidia graphics!). Not all machines are so good. I have a too new Dell XPS. It doesn't have graphical acceleration. But it was very cool to have the touchscreen working already (although with rough edges).
- monochromatic 8y ago
  Why?
  - nbsd4life 8y ago
    it's a nice OS, friendly community. It's very easy to build and modify everything, it doesn't hide errors under a rug (syslog messages are legible, coredumps not disabled by default and so on), so I feel like I can tackle any problem I encounter on it. Also, if you're the type that carries their long .xinitrc/.Xresources/.profile around, it's more comfortable than the friendly linuxes which require you to re-do everything but in dconf.
weitzj 8y ago
My experience is kind of old roughly NetBSD 2. Unplugging your PS2 Keyboard halted the machine. On the server side we had it on some old machine with a weird architecture just as a jump host. The great thing is pkgsrc for package management. I believe you can use it on OS X by now, which was done by the people who make SmartOS.

Does anyone here on HN have experience running NetBSD as their desktop OS?

rjsw 8y ago

I'm typing this on a desktop running NetBSD.

emgee_1 8y ago
Can you elaborate a bit? What kind of DE? Openbsd user here:-)
- rjsw 8y ago
  What do you count as a DE ? Right now I'm running mwm, emacs, Firefox, NetBeans, a couple of PDF viewers and lots of xterms.
  - emgee_1 8y ago
    Well if you are using emacs, like I do, what else do you need? Ok maybe a browser outside of emacs and a pdf viewer:-) And a tmux session somewhere. Someone once said: I just need a bootloader for emacs :-)
  - fierarul 8y ago
    So, you also have a functioning OpenJDK 8 or so to run NetBeans? I assume this means an x86 machine, correct?
    - rjsw 8y ago
      Yes this is on NetBSD/amd64, with a native OpenJDK 8. OpenJDK 8 will build for arm as well but it doesn't have a JIT.
na85 8y ago
Which laptop? How's battery life? Does s3/s0 suspend and resume work?
- rjsw 8y ago
  desktop != laptop.
  - na85 8y ago
    Whoops. Misread that.

bch 8y ago

It has been my primary for ~16 years, and I’ve been running -current (tip of development branch) for nearly 10 years. Base system (which includes tmux[0]), X11 (which is optional, but maintained by NetBSD), dwm[1], Tcl[2] cURL[3], fossil[4] and Firefox and I’m usually on my way... [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmux https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmux [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwm [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tcl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tcl [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CURL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CURL [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_(software)

vasili111 8y ago
Why have you chosen NetBSD?
- bch 8y ago
  Perceived balance of Unix tradition, progressiveness and sane engineeering/community. The base build system (build.sh)[0] which is essentially Makefiles is absolutely beautiful to work with, ditto for pkgsrc[1]. They’re “progressive” enough to include dtrace[2], work on neat security[3], and kernel models[4][5], but have eschewed modern Linux-isms like ip(1), systemd. Of BSD v Linux, my heart is definitely with the more traditional BSD. Of BSDs, I feel Net is capable enough, simpler than Free, but more feature full than Open. The other interesting BSD would be DragonFly - really interesting, but I’m happy enough w Net that I’m not going to swap it out, and don’t need more (different) systems in my life right now. [0] https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-build.html https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-build.html [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pkgsrc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pkgsrc [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTrace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTrace [3] http://www.netbsd.org/support/security/ http://www.netbsd.org/support/security/ [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rump_kernel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rump_kernel [5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6562611 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6562611
  - bch 8y ago
    Additionally, it’s not windows, not MacOS, and not Linux. It’s difficult to escape those in day-to-day computing, so my daily driver (thinkpad laptop) is slightly different on purpose, the idea being that, to a degree, everything I do is necessarily very “conscious”. What I mean is that nothing works automatically because I’m part of a vast majority. Where I run into friction, I try to take note and keep this in mind with the rest of my relationship with the world, whether it’s developing software, or making assumptions about the way people use computers. I often cite Neil Young to describe my “ditch”[0] computing. [0] http://www.thrasherswheat.org/tnfy/ditch.htm http://www.thrasherswheat.org/tnfy/ditch.htm

ephor 8y ago

Not here, but I use NetBSD constantly as a timesharing system via SDF.org.

nbsd4life 8y ago

I do, I'm using dwm, firefox and urxvt. I've got a lot of netbsd running machines. The one I use now is a Haswell CPU with nvidia graphics, and everything works well on it (even nvidia graphics!). Not all machines are so good. I have a too new Dell XPS. It doesn't have graphical acceleration. But it was very cool to have the touchscreen working already (although with rough edges).

monochromatic 8y ago
Why?
- nbsd4life 8y ago
  it's a nice OS, friendly community. It's very easy to build and modify everything, it doesn't hide errors under a rug (syslog messages are legible, coredumps not disabled by default and so on), so I feel like I can tackle any problem I encounter on it. Also, if you're the type that carries their long .xinitrc/.Xresources/.profile around, it's more comfortable than the friendly linuxes which require you to re-do everything but in dconf.

weitzj 8y ago

My experience is kind of old roughly NetBSD 2. Unplugging your PS2 Keyboard halted the machine. On the server side we had it on some old machine with a weird architecture just as a jump host. The great thing is pkgsrc for package management. I believe you can use it on OS X by now, which was done by the people who make SmartOS.